German architect Albert Speer Junior dies

[Dennis Donovan]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/37117095/german-architect-albert-speer-junior-dies/

German architect and city planner Albert Speer Junior, who spent his life in the long shadow of his Nazi father, has died aged 83.

<snip>

Speer devoted his career to environmentally-friendly city planning through means such as space minimisation and energy-efficient designs.

Born in 1934, Speer began a carpentry apprenticeship after WWII before studying architecture in Munich. In 1964 he set up his own practice for town planning and architecture in Frankfurt which won many prizes and led to project after project.

His firm, Albert Speer & Partner, was involved with designs including the European Central Bank building in Frankfurt and the Expo 2000 in Hanover.

Speer also designed stadiums for the Qatar 2022 football World Cup and worked on projects in Saudi Arabia and Algeria.

</snip>

Must've been hell to live down who your father was.

[MLAA]

1. Makes me wonder how Tiffany and Baron will do it.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. *rimshot*

Good one!

[SCantiGOP]

3. I read his Dad's autobiography in college

Very interesting. Written after the war so of course he tried to soften his role as much as possible.
The one thing that always stuck with me was Ozymandias-like fact: Every building that was designed for the Third Reich had to have a drawing of what it would look like as a ruin in 1,000 years. They did believe they were creating something on par with the Roman Empire.

[Dennis Donovan]

4. I read it too. Fascinating...

He certainly tried to minimize his role. He was in Spandau for 20 yrs.

[Mendocino]

5. Some things are hard to live with

like being Edwin Booth.

[Dennis Donovan]

7. Good example!

Edwin actually saved Robert Todd Lincoln from being run over by a train once:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Booth#Robert_Lincoln

Robert Lincoln
Edwin Booth saved Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert, from serious injury or even death. The incident occurred on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. The exact date of the incident is uncertain, but it is believed to have taken place in late 1864 or early 1865. Robert Lincoln recalled the incident in a 1909 letter to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Century Magazine.

The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.

Booth did not know the identity of the man whose life he had saved until some months later, when he received a letter from a friend, Colonel Adam Badeau, who was an officer on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant. Badeau had heard the story from Robert Lincoln, who had since joined the Union Army and was also serving on Grant's staff. In the letter, Badeau gave his compliments to Booth for the heroic deed. The fact that he had saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son was said to have been of some comfort to Edwin Booth following his brother's assassination of the president.

[Siwsan]

6. Himmler's daughter, Gudrun, is still alive (88 yrs old) and she still sings her father's praises

From her Wiki page:

She has never renounced the Nazi ideology and has repeatedly sought to justify the actions of her father, relative to the context of his time. People who know her say that Gudrun has created a "golden image" of her father.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudrun_Burwitz

[Dennis Donovan]

8. Yep. I guess some could not come to grips with how evil the Third Reich was...

Hanna Reitsch was another one. Very gifted pilot, but she could never bring herself to believe that the Nazis were evil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch#Last_interview.2C_1970.C2.B4s

Last interview, 1970´s
Reitsch was interviewed and photographed several times in the 1970s, towards the end of her life, by Jewish-American photo-journalist Ron Laytner. In her closing remarks she is quoted as saying:

And what have we now in Germany? A country of bankers and car-makers. Even our great army has gone soft. Soldiers wear beards and question orders. I am not ashamed to say I believed in National Socialism. I still wear the Iron Cross with diamonds Hitler gave me. But today in all of Germany you can't find a single person who voted Adolf Hitler into power ... Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don't explain the real guilt we share – that we lost.

Really, Hanna??

[Siwsan]

9. Rommel's son, Manfred, went on to lead a very positive and productive life

He actually became friends with the sons of General Patton and Field Marshall Montgomery. He was also awarded with a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[Dennis Donovan]

10. Irwin Rommel was a military man, not a Nazi.

He was also on the periphery of the July 1944 plot. If only they succeeded, how many lives would've been saved?

[Siwsan]

11. I've read opinions on both sides, about Rommel. I tend to agree with you.

No doubt there were many who bought into the propaganda and actually thought they were fighting for their country.

That being said, I never bought into the scenario that people living in the vicinity of the camps knew NOTHING about what was going on. Admittedly, they might have been too terrified to question, and ashamed to admit.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Needed To Add The Second Device

Not knowing enough about explosives, he didn't add the second bomb when he couldn't get the detonator in. The brissance from the first device would have set off the second, given they were right next to one another.

Double the pressure and the gas volume in that room, a lot more damage gets done.

Quite the shame.

[cwydro]

13. Many people do not realize that not all the military was Nazi.

Most were not.

I see that kind of ignorance on DU regularly. Being a German during that time did not mean you were a Nazi.

Rommel was not, nor were many of the rank and file.

[catbyte]

14. It could've been worse. Speer was "The Good Nazi" during the Nuremberg trials, being the only one to

admit his part in the horror & apologize for it. It's the only thing that kept him from the gallows. After being released from prison, his reputation went through a rehabilitation of sorts and was popular on the lecture circuit in the 1970's & '80's. I saw an episode of the 1973 WWII documentary series "The World at War" about the invasion of Russia where he was interviewed about Hitler's thought processes going into the invasion. Very interesting stuff.